“This is Grace. I guess only Shelly has officially met her. And this is my son, Zack.” He put his arm around Zack and tried to draw him forward, but Zack remained stiff.
“I’ve already met them,” Zack said.
“Well, you’ve met Daria and Shelly, but not Ellen and her husband, right?” Rory tried to keep good cheer in his voice.
“Ellen, hi,” he said, then lied politely.
“You look great.”
“Hello, Rory,” Ellen said.
“Long time no see.” Ellen had put on quite a bit of weight. Of the three Cato girls he’d known from his youth, she had changed the most. The flesh on her face was looser. Her hair had grayed markedly and had lost its healthy sheen. Chloe and Daria were aging far more gracefully, he thought.
“This is Ted,” Ellen said, gesturing toward her husband.
Ted stood and gave Rory a bone crusher of a handshake, yet he was a soft-looking man, with friendly eyes and a spare tire around his middle.
“Honored to meet you,” Ted said.
“I’m an old Rams fan.”
“Me, too.” Rory smiled.
“Have a seat, Zack,” Daria invited, and with a sullen shrug, Zack sat down next to Shelly. Rory held out the chair next to Ted for Grace, then took his own seat between Grace and his son.
“Where’s Chloe?” he asked.
“At a vespers service,” Daria said.
“At St. Esther’s,” Shelly added.
“Ah,” he said.
“What a lovely view from here,” Grace said.
“Surpassed only by the food,” Ted added, and although Rory didn’t look at Zack, he could imagine him rolling his eyes at the banality of the conversation. He knew Zack would far rather be with Kara tonight than at this table filled with adults.
Grace, on the other hand, had accepted the invitation with delight.
She wanted to meet the Catos, she’d said, and she’d love to see Shelly again. Rory was feeling some disappointment in Grace, though, and it had taken him several days to recognize the reason for his subtle dismay:
Grace had shown little interest in Zack. She’d asked the boy virtually no questions, and did not even talk to Rory about him. Rory had brought up the subject several times, trying to get Grace’s input on the relationship problems he and Rory were having, but Grace barely seemed to listen as he spoke. Her indifference came as a surprise and a letdown.
Especially after the interest she’d shown in Shelly. He’d expected too much of her, he knew. She had her own trials and tribulations to grapple with.
“Hey, Dar!” A good-looking man walked by their table on the way to his own, stopping to bend low and kiss Daria’s cheek.
“Hi, Mike, how are you doing?” Daria asked.
“Just great,” he said, giving her bare shoulders a squeeze.
“We miss you.”
“I miss you guys, too,” Daria said.
Mike winked at Shelly, nodded to the rest of the table, then walked across the deck where he joined a woman and another couple.
“One of your pals?” Rory teased Daria.
She wrinkled her nose at him.
“Exactly,” she said.
“Fellow EMT.”
They ordered their dinners. At first Zack said he wanted nothing to eat, but Shelly insisted he try the crab cakes.
“They’re the best in the universe,” she said, and Zack ordered them, probably to stop Shelly from bugging him.
Conversation was superficial but swift. Ted wanted to talk about fishing and football, Ellen, about the shopping spree she had planned for the following day. Grace suggested shops Ellen might try farther south. Rory and Daria joined in the chatter wherever they could, but Rory was keenly aware of Zack’s silence. He wished there was some way he could bring his son into the conversation without it looking obvious and contrived, thereby earning Zack’s wrath.
Shelly suddenly whispered something to Zack, and Rory realized that he was not the only person at this table aware of the boy’s shyness amidst the adults. She whispered again, and a smile crossed Zack’s lips. He
whispered something back to her, and she giggled. The adult con n versation still surged across the table, but
